Tag Archives: Black Cab

Cyber Monday

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It’s Monday, and it’s cybery here at TLCB for some reason. Perhaps the title would’ve worked about three weeks ago…

On to the models! With much talk in the car world about converting classic cars to EV powertrains, we hope this is the next logical step.

Previous bloggee Sergio Batista has heavily modified the rather lovely 75895 Speed Champions Porsche 911 Turbo set to become something rather more… hoverable. What? – It’s a word!

Sergio’s ‘Porsche 911 2073’ means we only have 52 years to wait, when this TLCB Staffer will be the approximate age that you need to be to become president.

Join us in hope of the hovercar revolution at Sergio’s photostream – click here to float on over and take a closer look!

Today’s second cyberpunk creation also has its roots in an official LEGO set, this time from waaaay back in 1971, when Joe Biden was still cheating in law school and Donald Trump was dodging military service.

LEGO were being far more productive however, releasing the ace 605 Taxi set. All seventeen pieces of it.

Constructed from rather more is Jonathan Elliott‘s 605 Redux, a wonderful cyberpunk homage to the fifty-year-old original. Back in 1971 they probably thought that taxis would look like Jonathan’s in 2021, but instead we got the Prius. Which looks like a melted iron.

Oh well, we can dream of the shape of things to come at Jonathan’s photostream, and you can join us there hailing the taxi of the future via the link above.

Cockney Cab

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Wacked from the ball and chalk? Then feast your meat pies on Jonathan Elliott’s Austin FX4 sherbet dab! Jonathan’s build is lemon tart, with choice black pieces, clips n’ bars, and – would you Adam n’ Eve it – bunny ears too. The grey mare’s more bangers n’ mash than ol’ Uncle Gus, but you’ll dodge the Barney Rubble from the elephant’s trunks. Take a butcher’s hook via the link above, whilst we head down the battlecruiser for a Garry Glitter.

Waterloo Station. And Make it Quick!

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Black Cabs are absolutely not fast. They are filthy smog spreading abominations though, and fortunately London has had enough and decreed only EVs and PHEVs now qualify to become Black Cabs. Fortunately the newly-renamed London Electric Vehicle Company, now owned by Geely (Volvo’s deep-pocketed owners), have built a new black cab fit for the 21st century, and it’s a delight. Plus it’s not poisoning us all like the last Black Cabs were, with a 1.5 litre Volvo petrol engine never driving the wheels, instead providing a range extension to the EV batteries.

Whilst we won’t mourn the loss of the soot-spewing old taxis, TLCB favourite and Master MOCer Redfern 1950s seems to, having created this ‘V8 Drag Car’ that to us looks a lot like an old Hackney Carriage (the technical term for London’s cabs) with an enormous V8 shoved in it.

It sure wouldn’t meet London’s new licensed-hire emissions rules, but we bet it’d get us across London a heck of lot faster. Actually that’s not true, crossing London is about as quick on a push-bike as it is in a Porsche, but it would be more fun! There’s more to see of of Red’s ‘V8 Drag Car’ (aka ‘Hackney Rod’, as named by us just now) at his photostream, plus you can learn how he creates brilliant models like this one at his Master MOCers interview via the link in the text above.

Hackney Carriage

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Lego Austin FX4 London Taxi

One of the most iconic vehicles in the world, London’s ‘Black Cab’ has remained visually unchanged for over sixty years. First built by Austin, which became British Leyland, and then by a succession of smaller specialist companies, the ‘Black Cab’ has ferried tens of millions of passengers around the streets of Britain’s capital.

This particular ‘Black Cab’ is an Austin FX4, a design first launched in 1958 that lasted right up until the late 1990s. Powered by various diesel engines the FX4, despite being a rather lovely vehicle, turned London’s air into a soot-filled soup, so thankfully they were banned from service in recent years (and their replacement is a far more air-quality friendly plug-in hybrid).

This brilliant Miniland-scale rendition of the old Austin FX4 comes from Peter Blackert aka Lego911 of Flickr and you can hail it for yourself via the link above. Just don’t breathe in what comes out the back…